Dame Margaret Hodge has repaid £2.97, the price of House of Commons stationery, which an inquiry into her review of the Garden Bridge Trust found to be the focus of a "serious breach" of parliamentary rules.
The Committee on Standards said last week that Hodge was in breach of rules when she used her parliamentary state, as well as stationery provided by the House of Commons and her parliamentary email address.
Hodge was appointed by Khan to conduct an independent review into the Garden Bridge project, which is run by charity the Garden Bridge Trust, and produced a report in April that concluded the project should be scrapped at a loss of over £46m to the taxpayer.
The committee said that it was satisfied that Hodge was not “motivated by financial gain”, but “she has, nonetheless, as a result of these events accrued a financial benefit while using House resources, and House-provided resources were used to the benefit of the GLA”.
Yesterday Hodge used a point of order to make an apology in the Commons chamber, and confirmed that she had paid back the £2.97 for headed paper.
She said: “I wish to apologise sincerely to the House for inadvertently acting in breach of our code of conduct when I used parliamentary resources during my independent review of the garden bridge.
“The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Committee on Standards have both concluded that I was not motivated by financial gain. I acted in good faith and in the public interest, but I fully accept the judgments of the commissioner and the committee. I have repaid the sum of £2.97, which represents the cost of House of Commons stationery, to the House of Commons Administration.”
Related articles
